The Way of Blessing

When Jesus called Peter, Andrew, James and John to leave behind the security and comfort of their nets, boats, business and families in order to follow him, I’m not sure they really understood what this new way of life was going to look like. They knew Jesus was calling them to be part of something big and new and powerful and if we look at what happened right after they dropped their nets and followed Jesus, we see that is exactly what they experienced. Look at Matthew 4:23-25. People’s lives were changed. They were healed and helped and soon huge crowds started to travel with Jesus, and as his fame spread, these new disciples could have gotten the idea that life and ministry with Jesus was going to lead to earthly success and power and position. So Jesus leads them and all his followers up to the mountains were he quickly sets the record straight. In Matthew 5, Jesus begins to lay out for his followers what a new life with God is going to look like, and as we see, it definitely does not look like what we see in the world around us. In many ways, the passage we just heard, known as the beatitudes, outlines for us a new way of thinking and living that we need to embrace and commit to if we are going to follow Jesus, and while this new way of life often goes against the teaching of the world, the good news is that if we will follow this new way - we will be blessed.


This word, blessed, that Jesus uses 9 times here, can also be translated as happy, but it doesn’t mean being happy the way we usually think about it. For us, happiness is all about our circumstances. For many people around here, when the Steelers win, they are happy. When we get a new job we are happy, when our family and friends remember us and treat us well, we are happy, but the kind of happiness Jesus is talking about transcends our circumstances. The blessing that Jesus is talking about is a peace and joy and contentment in life that endures through good times, difficult times and even the worst of times. The blessing Jesus is talking about has nothing to do with worldly success, power, profit or prestige and it has everything to do with our experience of God’s presence, power and love at work in our lives. So if we want to be blessed, if we want to experience the fullness of life that God has for us, and if we want to be truly happy, then we need to follow the way of blessing that Jesus outlines here.

Now while so much of Jesus teaching can be difficult to understand, the truth is that this way of blessing is pretty straightforward and it all starts with being poor in spirit. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Now being poor in spirit has nothing to do with being poor financially. Being poor in spirit means acknowledging that what we need to find lasting happiness, joy and peace is not going to be found in us or in the world around us but in God. In Luke 18 we hear the story about a man who came to Jesus looking for this kind of blessing. He was rich, well educated and very faithful to God, his family, church and community, and he asked Jesus, What must I do to inherit eternal life? In other words, he wanted to know what he had to do to receive God’s blessing. Now this man was feeling pretty confident in himself and in his abilities because when Jesus told him that he needed to keep God’s commandments he replied, I have kept them all since I was a child. This man was feeling pretty strong in spirit, he was feeling confident in his own ability to do everything the right way and thus earn God’s blessing, and so Jesus looks at him and hits him with this truth, if you want to be perfect, go sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor and then come follow me. What Jesus told this man was that to experience the blessing of God, we have to stop trusting in ourselves and in our own ability to live life the right way and start trusting in God alone.

Now it says that the rich man left Jesus sad because he had great wealth. It doesn’t appear from the story that he ever followed Jesus and I’m not sure that it was his love of money that kept him from Jesus and experiencing the blessing of God as much as it was his love of self. Maybe it wasn’t his big bucks that held him back but his big head. This man thought he could earn God’s blessing by being good and following the law but no matter how good we are we can’t earn God’s blessing. There is no right ritual, doctrine, devotion, or living that earns us God’s blessing. God’s blessing only comes when we stop trusting in ourselves and start trust in God alone. That’s what Jesus means when he says blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who are willing to stand before God not trusting in their own gifts, goodness and abilities but instead are willing to trust in God’s mercy and love alone. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, this is the first step in the way of blessing..

The second step in this way builds on the first one. The reason we don’t stand before God in our own strength, goodness and ability is because we are sinners and we need to acknowledge this and turn from our sin. If we look back at Matthew 4:17 we see that the message Jesus consistently proclaimed was repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near. Now repentance means to turn away from our sin but I’m not sure we will turn away from our sin until we see just how bad our sin is. When our eyes and the eyes of our heart are open and we come face to face with just how deep and strong our sin is, we will mourn and that is the second step in this way of blessing - Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. Jesus isn’t talking about being sad because of the losses we experience in life; he is talking about mourning our sin because we see how completely our sin cuts us off from experiencing the blessings of life we find in a relationship with God.

So the question becomes, when was the last time we mourned because we saw the fullness of our sin? I’m afraid we don’t mourn our sin because we are too busy justifying and rationalizing it. Look at the story that Jesus tells in Luke 18:9-14.

What the tax collector is doing here is justifying his sin. He was looking at his own life and comparing himself to others, and when he did that he told himself that he wasn’t really that bad and he certainly wasn’t as bad as some of the people he saw around him, and because he wasn’t that bad he thought God should bless him. Like the rich man, he wanted God to bless him because of what he had done, he wanted God to reward him but God’s blessing is not earned; it only comes when we are poor in spirit and acknowledge our sin. So if we want to experience the blessing of God it will only come after we confess our sin and begin to feel the power of God’s forgiveness. Just as God comforts those who mourn the pain of loss, so God forgives those who truly confess and repent of their sins. Part of what is included in the blessing God wants to give us is the gift of forgiveness, but that only comes when we confess our sin. When we get honest with God about our sin, God is able to forgive and with that forgiveness comes freedom from guilt and shame and when those are taken away we experience more of the fullness of life – we are happy or blessed. So we need to start getting honest about who we are and confess our sin to God because when we confess our sin the bible says that God is faithful and just and will forgive us of our sin. Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted.

Once we stop trusting in ourselves and get honest with God about our sin, we will move to the third step in the way of blessing and that is to become meek – blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth. When most people hear the word meek they think it means being weak and a pushover, but it doesn’t. Being meek doesn’t mean being a doormat, it doesn’t mean that we don’t see any value or worth in our lives, it means that we see great value and worth but that we are willing to surrender our lives to another. I find it interested that Jesus puts this beatitude here, after mourning, after we acknowledge that we are sinners because when we begin to see the fullness of our sin it can become easy for us to think that we have no value or worth to God, but we do. We do have value and worth before God, God loves us more than we can imagine, and when God calls us to confess our sin it is not a call to see ourselves as weak and worthless, it is a call for us to be meek and surrender our rights and our lives before God. Being meek goes beyond just being humble, it means being willing to surrender our rights. When I think of someone who is meek, I think of someone who chooses to be gentle and patient even when they have every right to be angry and insist on their own way. I think of someone who willingly gives control of their lives to God because they know that God’s way is the better way.

In trying to think of an example someone who clearly shows us what it means to be meek, the only person who comes to mind is Jesus and the place where Jesus shows us what meekness really looks like is when he goes to trial. After Jesus was arrested he stood trial before several different people and every time he stood before the leaders he was falsely accused and he could have easily defended himself and said that he was innocent, but he didn’t because he knew these trials and eventually the cross was God’s will and God’s way, so he gave up his rights and surrendered himself fully to God. Being meek is not an easy thing to do, it is not just giving up or giving in, being meek means giving over our rights so that God’s will and God’s way can be accomplished. Jesus didn’t give up after he was arrested – he gave over his rights so God’s that will could be done. Jesus didn’t give up on the cross; he gave over his right to be defended by every angel in heaven so that God’s will could be accomplished. When we begin to see meekness as a giving over of our rights - we see that it requires an incredibly strong faith and trust not in ourselves but in God – which is why we will never be meek until we are first poor in spirit.

Again, we see that there is an order to Jesus way of blessing and as we surrender ourselves to God we will move to the fourth step and stop pursing the things of the world and begin to hunger and thirst for righteousness, or for the things of God. Max Lucado tells a story which illustrates why pursing the things of God and not the things of this world is so important. One day when Max’s daughter Andrea was about 3 years old and she jumped into one of those play areas filled with small plastic balls. After playing for a while she grabbed a huge arm load of balls and tried to get out of the pit. As you can imagine, the problem she had was that with her arms so full she couldn’t get the balance she needed in the middle of all those balls to stand up and walk out of the pit. Every time that she would wiggle her way to a standing position and try to take a step, she would lose her balance and simply fall over, and every time she fell over she sank deeper and deeper under the sea of plastic balls, and as Max watched all of this he thought to himself, great, she’s got what she want’s and she’s going to hold on to it, even if it kills her.

What are those things that we hunger and thirst for in this world that we hold on to even if it know that will kill us? What are those things God is calling us to let go of so we can stand up and walk with him into new life? Each of us hunger and thirst for things in this world that we think will make us happiness. We hunger for wealth, we thirst for security, we long for the nicest homes, newest cars, fastest phones and most productive investments, but the truth is that in the end none of those things can bring about the lasting joy there is when we walk with God. When we can let go of all those things in this world that we hunger and thirst for and begin to hunger and thirst for more of God, we will find more of God. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for God, because when we do, we will find God.

We spend a lot of time and energy trying to figure out how to be happy in this world, this month’s reader’s digest has yet another article on what we need to do to find lasting happiness and while there are lots of good ideas out there Jesus has shown us the way, but the way is difficult because it goes against what much of the world says. Happiness or blessing isn’t found in ourselves or in anything in the world around us, it is found when we let go of everything in this world and grab hold of God. The blessing of God comes when we let go of the idea that we can do it on our own and get honest with God about our sin and need for God’s mercy. The blessing of God comes when we surrender our lives to God and start pursing the things of God.

If we will live the way Jesus teaches us here then he says we will be blessed, but if we live this way of blessing then I believe that the rest of Jesus teaching here will begin to develop in our lives. When we stop trusting in ourselves and start trusting in God’s grace and pursing the things of God we will find the mercy to offer others, we will have a pure or a focused heart that will help us see God, and we will work for peace and live for Christ no matter what goes on around us or who works against us. The more we follow these first 4 steps in Jesus way of blessing the more we will experience the last 4 blessings that Jesus talks about, but it all starts when we stop trying to find happiness on our own or in this world and start turning to and trusting in God alone.



The next steps this week are more reflective because what Jesus is calling for is a change of heart and attitude, so this week take some quiet time to reflect on your life and begin to identify the following:

• What is it that I hunger and thirst for and how does this compare to what Jesus hungered and thirsted for during his life on earth?

• What “right” do I need to give up? (Is it the right to an apology, the right to a job, possession, standard of living or life-style I see in someone else?) How will giving up this right help bring in God’s kingdom?

• Make a list of the sin you can identify in your life (be honest and thorough) and then confess it all to God. While this can be uncomfortable, remember Psalm 103:8-14 and 1 John 1:9.

• Daily pray the “sinners” prayer found in Luke 18:13, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”

• What do I trust in that I need to let go off so that I can trust God more?